Pelicans fall to the Creek in rubber match showdown

Myrtle Beach’s bats went dormant Thursday despite a strong performance from the Pelicans’ pitching staff in a 3-0 loss to the Buies Creek Astros in the rubber match game of their three-game set from TicketReturn.Com Field at Pelicans Ballpark.

Buies Creek (47-38, 10-5) cracked the scorecard against Myrtle Beach (48-36, 5-9) starter Justin Steele (6-5) in the second inning as Spencer Johnson lashed his third home run of the series to left field to give the Astros the 1-0 advantage.

Stephen Wrenn kicked off the fourth inning for the Astros with a walk. With one out in the frame, Wrenn advanced to second on a groundout before scoring on a two-out single from Randy Cesar to make the score 2-0.

The Astros scored the final run of the contest in the ninth inning. Alex De Goti walked to begin the frame before advancing to third on a base hit to right field from Myles Straw. Ryne Birk delivered with a sacrifice fly to left field scoring De Goti and extending the ‘Stros lead to 3-0.

Ryan Hartman (1-3) was the starter for Buies Creek, and he tossed five shutout innings and picked up his first win of the season before giving way to Hector Perez. The right-hander followed Hartman with four shutout innings to complete the shutout of the Pelicans.

Steele allowed just two runs in 4.2 innings. David Berg followed Steele with 2.1 innings of scoreless relief before he gave way to Scott Effross, who allowed just one run in the final two innings of the contest for Myrtle Beach.

Myrtle Beach will head to Frederick to take on the Keys with the opener of their four-game set on Friday at 7:00 p.m. RHP Duncan Robinson (0-0, 0.00 ERA) will oppose RHP Ofelky Peralta (1-7, 6.67 ERA). Coverage begins at 6:45 p.m. on MyrtleBeachPelicans.com/Broadcast, the MiLB First Pitch app and TuneIn.